


And That's Why We Need Pride

by NotQuiteHydePark



Category: Excalibur (Comic), New Mutants, X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Mutant Pride, Pride, Radio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 08:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19103638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHydePark/pseuds/NotQuiteHydePark
Summary: Kitty has something she's ready to tell the world. Why not public radio?





	And That's Why We Need Pride

WNYC TRANSCRIPT BEGINS

HH: Welcome back to This Minute, a co-production of WNYC and KNOW-Minneapolis-St. Paul. I’m your host Hazel Hall and here with me in our studio today is Kitty Pryde, headmaster of the Xavier School in Manhattan. Thank you for joining us.

KP: Thank you.

HH: Kitty, you’re also a member of the X-Men, the team of mutants some call superheroes, and others a mutant menace. How do you reconcile your mission as a teacher to prepare your mutant students for daily life with your goal as a would-be superhero?

KP: That’s a good question, Hazel. It’s not a new one, and it’s one I’ve never had to face alone. I’m happy to say that at this point in the evolution of the X-Men we have a full array of capable heroes—none of them minors, I should add—who are working to keep the world as safe, and as full of opportunities, as we can. It’s not that different, really, from a college where the same person might teach biochemistry Monday and try to cure phenylketonuria on Tuesday.We do the same thing. But with more punching.

HH: You have some experience with research universities, I take it.

KP: I’m happy to say I hold degrees in physics and computer science from the University of Chicago.

HH: Go Phoenix!

KP: WHAT?!? (pauses) Oh, right. (pauses) The U of C mascot. It’s not really a sporty place, though I have definitely seen my share of Maroon women’s basketball. I support the Sky. And the Cubs.

HH: Any Liberty fans out there? (pauses) Can you give our baseline human listeners—that is, most of them—an update on the state of mutant politics? I’m sure you were happy to see the latest version of the Mutant Registration Act die in the House.

KP: Well, Hazel, these registration acts keep coming back like zombies or Sentinels, and most of us see them as not just needless but harmful: there’s no reason for a government to track individual mutants—or any other members of any group, really—unless we ask for it, or unless individual members of that group commit crimes, in which case there’s already a system in place. Registration has often, for other groups, been a prelude to restrictions on the freedom that all of us deserve by right, a way to try to legislate vulnerable people’s bodies. And mutants (especially those who can’t pass for baseline human, as I can) are among the most vulnerable. 

HH: What do you say to the people who argue that mutants aren’t really a persecuted minority, that they’re colonizing the territory of the truly persecuted, and that mutant activists only look after their own?

KP: Our school has its own graveyard. I think that speaks for itself. As for the idea that mutant activists don’t care about other causes, I’d point you to our students’ work on behalf of all women’s abilities to decide what we can do with our own bodies, whether we’re baseline humans, mutants, Inhumans, or something else.

HH: I think you’re referring to mutant-led clinic defense. Can you say more about that?

KP: Absolutely. It’s really been led by our students, but it certainly has our support. Planned Parenthood and similar organizations have been there for many of us. We’re there for them. We’ve also noticed that some of their enemies have started to share equipment, such as flying micro-Sentinels, with anti-mutant hate groups.

HH: But isn’t that just an example of white straight women’s feminism, of taking the least intersectional cause you can get?

KP: (sighs audibly) It’s not just white straight women, and it’s not just baseline humans, who need basic medical care and autonomy, Hazel. As you know, some men can get pregnant. And I’m tired of passing for straight.

HH: What? (pauses) But you almost married. A man. We covered the wedding here on WNYC.

KP: I’m not going to talk about that day on the radio, Hazel. But yes. I almost married a man. Someday I might marry a woman. (To tell you the truth, she’s in the lobby now.) Wait a minute.

SOUND EFFECT: 

HH: What did you do?

KP: A flying micro-Sentinel seems to have followed us into the building. They look like wasps, but they can kill you. Fortunately my powers disrupt circuitry, so I defused it and shorted it out by passing my hand through it. We can go back to our interview now.

HH: Never a dull day with the X-Men around. But they do mostly survive the experience.

KP: We try.

HH: But you’re not straight. But you almost married a man. An X-Man.

KP: (with emphasis) I. Am. Bi. Sex. U. Al. I have been attracted to men and to women since I knew what attraction was. Since before that, honestly. I’m bi. That doesn’t mean I can’t make up my mind. It doesn’t mean I’m not sure. I’m not sure about plenty of things, even now, but I am sure I’m bi. And I am sure that bisexual erasure, where (let’s just take women for now) bi women who date men are presumed to be straight, bi women who date women are presumed to identify as lesbian, and bi women who date both at the same time are presumed to be sleazy when they’re just poly— I’m sure that bisexual erasure belongs in the past, along with the idea that Jews have horns. 

I’m a mutant who can pass for a baseline human unless I’m in costume, unless you recognize my face. I’m Jewish, but you can’t tell that by looking at me. And I’m definitely a bi, queer woman. You can’t tell that by seeing me, either, unless I happen to be holding hands with my girlfriend. We do that sometimes. But I’ve had boyfriends. I was just as queer as I am Jewish, and just as Jewish as I am a mutant, when I was with them. And at this point I want to be seen to be bi, just as I want people to know I’m Jewish. It’s a matter of pride. That’s pride with an I. (pauses) And with a why.

Some of us can’t pass. We’re mutants with scaly green skin, for example, or creatures attached to our necks. We can’t get away from who we are. But some of us pass unless we go out of our way: people make assumptions about who we are, and what we represent or can’t represent, and those assumptions are wrong. They cut us off from our own history, from our people, and they encourage the majority to think we’re not there just because we’re not visible to them, or because we remember when we had to hide.

I know something about erasure and intangibility and people treating you like you’re not real. It’s kind of my thing. I am also, definitely, bisexual. And I’m a grownup, and a teacher—I look after teenagers-- and at this point I want people to know.

HH: Thank you very much, Professor Kitty Pryde. What’s that? Why does it buzz? Is it dead? Can you fight it? Is it another micro… microsentinel?

KP: That’s not a microsentinel; it’s alive. It’s also probably explosive. It’s a Kree kaboom fly. Those jerks must have planted it here so that it would blow up right after the interview. Fortunately my girlfriend noticed it as we came in and neutralized it, so now it might as well just be a green housefly. You can ignore it.

HH: How do you…. neutralize a Kree kaboom fly?

KP: Either telekinesis, or spell-casting magic.

HH: And that’s it for our time with Kitty Pryde, headmaster of the Xavier School in Manhattan. Next up, a fresh singer songwriter whose charisma may be her superpower. Here’s Koffee, with “Toast.”

WNYC TRANSCRIPT ENDS

**Author's Note:**

> Set after X-Men Gold 36 (2017) and before Disassembled. Title from the Grace Petrie song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5rMrPJzFGs I also recommend the Koffee song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8HoEvDh70Y Let me know if you like it!


End file.
